- Major:
- M.S.W. in Social Work
Samantha McMinn
Indy has always been a lovely place to work, live, and learn. It’s centrally located and easily accessible from home and work and offers so much variety in food and entertainment for all tastes.
M.S.W. in Social Work - Alumna
Why did you choose graduate school at IUPUI?
The IU School of Social Work and the Indiana Department of Child Services have a partnership that helps ensure best practices in child safety. As an employee of DCS, I was offered a Child Welfare Scholarship to obtain my MSW while putting all of my learning to good use within my work for DCS.
What has been your favorite academic accomplishments since you’ve been here?
Creating the template for an agency, and it’s funding, for older, hard-to-place, at-risk youth which will offer various treatment types combining my passions for horticulture and animal rescue (green care) with helping youth as they navigate the child welfare/probation systems to have good outcomes including safety, independence and well-being.
What do you enjoy most about life in Indianapolis?
Indy has always been a lovely place to work, live, and learn. It’s centrally located and easily accessible from home and work and offers so much variety in food and entertainment for all tastes. Indy is very diverse and contains so much of the culture of its people and their food, music, celebrations and way of life.
Please provide some details about your work/research as a graduate student and/or any activities you are involved in.
I have been at IUPUI for three years and have worked on the boards of two student organizations, the Student Outreach Clinic and the MSW Student Association where I have gained excellent experience in working with other disciplines, working with faculty, managing a team and a work site and having the opportunity to give back by supporting fellow MSW’s and advocating for underserved populations in the community. In addition to these professional experiences, I have enjoyed my practicum experiences facilitating grief groups with grieving children at Brooke’s Place and now searching for ways to increase retention in high stress working environments, such as DCS, and improving outcomes in the juvenile probation population through a study of best practice in placement and services and working within the dual status case type.